Want your business cards to stand out at networking events or sales meetings? Give them some extra oomph by incorporating QR Codes.
These nifty solutions allow you to combine the benefits of digital business cards and physical cards—you can maintain the feel of physical cards while still connecting your target audience to a world of information online.
QR Codes allow instant access to contact details, portfolios, social media, and even multimedia content like videos and audio. They can help you stand out in competitive spaces, increase engagement with target audiences, and simplify networking. Of course, this is contingent on how you use them.
Read on as we explore the value of QR Codes on business cards and look at how to use them effectively.
Note: The brands and examples discussed below were found during our online research for this article.
How QR Codes are changing business cards
QR Code technology has elevated business cards, making them more effective for networking and generating leads. Here’s how these two-dimensional barcodes are changing business cards for the better.
The digital evolution of business cards
Be honest: How often do you actually keep business cards that you receive? And why would you when everything is available online now? With a quick Google search, you can probably find a person’s LinkedIn, their website or portfolio, their latest thought leadership posts, and a few bonus pictures of their weekend at the lake.
But that doesn’t mean that business cards are dead. Professionals are boosting engagement and networking by incorporating QR Codes. They add an element of interactivity and bridge the gap between physical and digital networking, making it easier to store and access contact information.
This isn’t to say that business cards with QR Codes don’t get discarded. They may still be thrown out, but there’s a good chance that recipients will scan the QR Code (possibly just out of curiosity) and add your contact info to their smartphones first.
Further, with Dynamic QR Codes, you can update your contact information or even change the destination of your code without printing new business cards.
Why QR Codes make business cards more effective
QR Codes elevate business cards by making it easy for recipients to access contact information and take action—all they need to do is scan the code with their mobile device. Eliminating the need for manual contact saving can improve engagement and response rates.
QR Codes also offer other benefits, such as:
- Professionalism: They make business cards appear more professional by reducing clutter.
- Space optimization: Rather than add every single detail about who you are and how networks can reach you (which is impossible with physical cards’ limited space), you can print a QR Code directing them to more detailed contact information.
- Cross-platform connections: These nifty solutions can direct audiences to virtually any destination via URL, be it social media platforms like LinkedIn, your website or landing page, or even your booking calendar.
- Multiple contact methods: QR Codes allow you to share everything from your phone number and email address to your social media handles in one spot without taking up too much space.
- Trackability: You can track QR Code scans to measure networking success and get insights into your target audience, such as their locations, the devices they use, and the types of events or networking strategies that drive them to engage.
Bitly Pages: The new era of digital business cards
The beauty of modern technology is that it makes almost everything easier. With Bitly Pages, Bitly’s no-code landing page builder, you can create mobile-friendly landing pages to house your contact information and then share them with Bitly Codes—all from one platform.
When you use Bitly Pages’s digital business card feature, you also get dedicated networking options, like the “Save as Contact” option, which allows recipients to save your contact details straight to their smartphones with a single scan.
Plus, you receive real-time analytics on your page’s performance—traffic sources, page views, and visitor locations—which can help you gauge your networking efforts’ success and show you what works.
Best ways to use QR Codes on business cards
Curious about how to use QR Codes on business cards? Here are some of the top use cases:
Share contact info instantly
QR Codes are versatile and flexible, allowing you to share more than just your name and phone number. By adding them to your business cards, you can direct your target audience to your full contact details.
Share your name, phone number, email, LinkedIn profile, photos of past works, custom landing pages, and company details like what your business does and where it’s located, all with one quick scan.
Link to your portfolio or resume
Alone, a physical business card can’t show potential clients, employers, or partners why you’d be a great fit for a role. You’d have to accompany it with a physical resume or portfolio, which is not only inconvenient but can also be quite expensive in terms of printing.
QR Codes eliminate the need for extra physical documents. They can direct your audience to your online portfolio, resume, or work samples, letting you showcase your talents and qualifications seamlessly. This makes them ideal for freelancers, creatives, job seekers, or anyone who regularly needs to share their work.
Grow your social media and online presence
With QR Codes, you can gain followers by directing traffic straight to LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and other platforms your business uses.
This is one of the best ways for small businesses to use QR Codes, as it allows them to achieve two goals at once—share information and grow their online presence. It’s also great for influencers, as it can help them build their followings.
Promote special offers and lead generation
You can also use QR Codes to share discounts, free trials, ebooks, coupons, and other exclusive offers, turning them into lead-generation opportunities to increase brand awareness or product sales.
The best part? When you use QR Codes for offers, you can track their scans to discover what resonates with your audience. This is simple to do when you use Bitly products, as you can easily monitor how each embedded link performs in one central location—Bitly Campaigns.
Allow appointment booking
If you’re a consultant, real estate agent, or service provider, you can use QR Codes to direct customers to online scheduling pages right from your business cards. This streamlines the booking process and improves customer experiences.
You can directly embed URLs from tools like Calendly and Google Calendar into your QR Code or build an appointment landing page and use its URL to create your code. If you want to share more details about your business, the latter is a great idea, and it’s pretty easy to do with the right tools.
Just choose a landing page template from Bitly Pages, paste a link to your booking form, add text detailing who you are and what you do, and voilà, you’ll have a landing page. You can then use the URL to create your Bitly Code.
Recruit job candidates
QR Codes aren’t just great for job seekers—they can also help HR personnel and recruiters promote roles that they’re hiring for and exchange contact info with potential candidates at job fairs, trade shows, and networking events.
We’re in a candidate-driven market, where recruiters have to actively source talent. By using QR Codes to network, you can stand out from other employers, boosting your chances of finding the right fit for your roles.
Best practices for designing QR Codes on business cards
Now that you know how to use QR Codes, let’s look at how to design them for maximum engagement.
Know where to place a QR Code on your business card
Your audience won’t scan your QR Code if they don’t see it, so make sure it stands out—but without being overwhelming. Corner placement is ideal, away from any other text that might interfere with scanning by mobile devices and other QR Code readers.
Make sure it’s large enough to function correctly as well. The minimum QR code size is 2 cm x 2 cm, and that’s typically the perfect size for a small medium like business cards.
Make your QR Code stand out
A creative QR Code design can make your business card stand out. This is particularly important if you plan to hand out cards at networking events or other settings with competing businesses or professionals, as your target audience will likely receive several cards. If yours stands out, they may be more likely to engage with you.
You can customize your QR Code by using your brand’s colors, choosing a unique pattern and frame, and including your logo in the middle. However, don’t let your customization affect scannability.
For easy scanning, maintain high contrast (dark QR Codes on light backgrounds work best), print the code in high resolution, and make sure there’s sufficient white space around the code.
Also, include a clear call to action (CTA) near the QR Code, such as “Scan to save my contact info” or “Scan for my portfolio.” This lets your audience know what to expect at the other end of a scan, which can encourage engagement.
Static vs. Dynamic QR Codes: Know which one to use
While both Static and Dynamic QR Codes streamline access to contact information, they don’t offer the same value. Static QR Codes are uneditable after printing, meaning you have to create new business cards if you need to update your info or direct your audience to a new destination.
Dynamic QR Codes, on the other hand, allow you to update the linked content at any time, ensuring potential customers always have access to the most up-to-date information. Further, they’re trackable and can provide valuable audience insights for continual networking strategy optimization.
Test and optimize QR Code performance
Test your business card QR Code using multiple devices (iOS and Android) both before and after printing to ensure seamless access to the embedded information. If there are any issues, you may need to tweak the design or placement for better scannability.
Once you’ve started distributing your cards, use Bitly Analytics to track total scans, scans over time, devices used, and geographic data to better understand your audience and what drives engagement.
For example, if you see high scan rates after a niche networking event, you may want to sign up for similar events or run targeted campaigns to capitalize on that audience’s interest in your services.
Why Bitly Codes are the best choice for business cards
With the growing interest in QR Code technology, you have your pick of QR Code generators—but Bitly Codes are a standout choice. Here’s why Bitly is the best platform to get QR Codes for your business needs:
- Branding and customization: Bitly offers extensive QR Code customization features, allowing you to pick unique patterns and frames, use your brand’s colors, and include your business logo. This helps you match your QR Codes to your brand aesthetic and overall business card design for a professional and trustworthy networking experience.
- QR Code tracking: Bitly facilitates QR Code tracking and provides real-time scan data via Bitly Analytics, allowing for continual strategy optimization. Some of the metrics available in Bitly include total scans, top-performing scans, scans by referrer, scans by location (city/country), and scans by browser and operating system.
- Flexibility: Bitly Codes can work with any link—website URLs, online portfolios, LinkedIn pages, custom landing pages, and more—allowing you to share whatever information you want seamlessly.
- Dynamic QR Codes: Bitly Codes are dynamic, so you can update your contact details or your code’s destination without reprinting your business cards. This not only saves you money but also limits paper waste.
Upgrade your business card with a smart QR Code
QR Code business cards allow you to seamlessly share a wider range of information—contact details, your portfolio, resume, social media profiles, appointment booking pages, and more. But they also provide valuable audience insights to help you optimize your networking and marketing strategies.
With Bitly, you can generate, customize, track, and manage all your QR Codes in one central location. Plus, Bitly Pages allows you to create custom no-code landing pages in minutes. Add all your important links and details to your personalized landing page, then generate a custom QR Code for it that aligns perfectly with your brand.
The Bitly platform is your one-stop shop for all your digital networking needs!
Sign up for Bitly today to elevate your business cards with trackable custom QR Codes.
